Unsurprisingly the trend of ‘eat the rich’ horror films has been having a moment over the last few years. In 2019, Jordan Peele’s Us and Radio Silence’s Ready or Not took aim at the wealthy with viciously funny relish, and more recently Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice had its fill. Director-writer Alex Scharfman’s debut feature, Death Of A Unicorn, fits in with those movies, but it’s also partly an eco-horror where the mythical unicorn savagely lashes out at late-stage capitalism. The Succession style scenario of a rich family with no morals may be a tad overdone at this point but the Alien inspired visuals of nature fighting back are wildly amusing and sets this fantasy-comedy-horror apart.
The starry cast is made up of terminally-ill, Big Pharma businessman Odell (Richard E. Grant), his equally cold-hearted partner Belinda (Téa Leoni) and their son Shepard (Will Poulter) who struts around their lavish, isolated mansion like a spoilt tech-bro. When financial advisor Elliott (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) pay them a visit they accidentally hit a baby unicorn and stuff it in their car boot. When their misdemeanour is discovered by the head of security (Jessica Hynes) and butler (a hilarious scene-stealing Anthony Carrigan) all hell breaks loose.
The modern targets of pharmaceutical companies, inhumane health-care practices, greed and a disregard for the environment are nicely handled but with the addition of a medieval mythology surrounding unicorns there’s a bit too much going on and a few of the characters are underwritten as disposable archetypes. Still the slasher-type scenario allows for some fun kills and certain cast members are given great one-liners and physical comedy.
Poulter in particular is memorable throughout in his turn as an egotistical man-child; his drug-fuelled antics are a blast. Rudd as ever knows how to deliver on charmingly awkward, and gets some comically violent scenes. It would have been nice to see Ortega given less of a straight role (considering her wonderfully dry comedic turn in Wednesday) but her dynamic with Rudd is sweet enough to give the film enough heart to have you rooting for the father-daughter duo to save the day.
Death Of A Unicorn is out in cinemas on 4 April
